Sticks and Stones
by Ayien
Summary: He reached out, touched her thin shoulder, bone pressing against his palm. Sakura flinched- tried to hide it, failed miserably- and Naruto stifled the instinctive hurt. A Team 7 OT3 story.


**A/N:** This was done for the LJ community 'springkink'. Feedback is loved. I don't own any of the characters or Naruto.

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The door slammed, the frame of the building groaning as it shook beneath Sakura's strength. Something was obviously up, and whatever it was…

Naruto glanced at Sasuke, who returned his gaze blankly, lifting a shoulder in a shrug. Bastard couldn't even deign to give him a real response! He huffed, dropping his head and biting at Sasuke's throat in irritation. The other man hissed, fingers digging into his back as Naruto rolled his hips against him.

There was a crash of plates. Sasuke winced.

Well, whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

Naruto rolled off of Sasuke, scooped his ratty shirt up off the floor and struggled into it. Sasuke followed, the two of them padding through the apartment, past old knickknacks from Sakura's parents, Sasuke's dented kunai, empty ramen cups. He could hear Sakura rummaging around in the kitchen, muttering curses, china clinking.

He and Sasuke leaned around the doorframe. Sakura was standing in front of the counter with her back to them, her ANBU blacks stained and sweaty, her short hair tucked behind her ears. Her mask, slung at her hip, gleamed white-silver in the twilight. The kettle was on, water boiling, and Sakura was pulling out one of Sasuke's mother's old chipped teacups.

"-fucking bastards- don't know what they're talking about- calling _me _a slut-"

Sasuke hissed, an indrawn breath of rage.

_"What?"_ Naruto said, louder than he expected.

Sakura stilled, her back a stiff line, and didn't turn to face them. Naruto's teeth were clenched so hard that he could feel a headache coming on, and every nerve in his body rang with the urge to go sprinting from the building to kill whoever had said something about his Sakura.

"Hi, guys." Her voice was soft. Sasuke didn't move- he _sucked_ at comforting people- so Naruto did, crossing the dirty tile to stand beside her. He reached out, touched her thin shoulder, bone pressing against his palm. Sakura flinched- tried to hide it, failed miserably- and Naruto stifled the instinctive hurt.

"You okay?" She wouldn't _look_ at him, and suddenly what he wanted most in the world was to see her beautiful green eyes again. He cupped her chin in his hand, turned her face to him.

"Aw, Sakura…" he said for lack of anything better, gazing at her red-rimmed eyes, her nose bright red with tears, her lower lip trembling with sobs that she wouldn't let loose. He didn't know what to say, what to do, and settled for pulling her close, her hands whispering over his spine. Sasuke came up behind her, hands in his pocket, didn't move. Naruto rolled his eyes, grabbed him and pulled him in, too, sandwiching Sakura between them.

This was where he belonged, with Sakura and Sasuke, who knew everything about him- bad and good- and loved him anyway, even if they didn't say it- which Sasuke never did. This was where he was happiest, with the smell of Sakura's green tea shampoo and Sasuke's kunai oil in his nose, with Sasuke's muscled frame and Sakura's slight curves pressing up against him.

"What happened?" Sasuke spoke into Sakura's skin, black hair mingling with pink, his fingers laced with hers. Sakura shivered, tilted her head back on Sasuke's shoulder, her leg parting Naruto's thighs, rubbing up against him. Fire sizzled on his spine, and he fought the urge to just tear her clothes off of her: he'd ruined enough ANBU blacks already, doing that.

"Nothing important-"

"Bullshit," Naruto growled. "You said that somebody called you a-" he paused, not wanting to say the word. He'd said it before, called her a slut in the heat of the moment, but he never meant it _that_ way, only in a good way, because she was his and Sasuke's slut, just like when she was in a mood, they were both her bitches.

But the word was disgusting now, and he mourned the loss.

"Some guys at work," she said, her eyes closed, soaking up the heat from both their bodies. Sasuke's eyes were open and in the blood-red of the Sharingan, the black tomoe whirling as he met Naruto's gaze. "ANBU's pretty male-oriented, and some of the old guard don't like women playing their games."

"They don't like you playing their games because they know you'll crush them," Sasuke said.

"Yeah! I mean, the only people who can break mountains with their fists are you and the old hag, and she's not going into ANBU anytime soon. They're just jealous."

"I wish that was all." She opened her eyes, tried to smile. Sasuke let go of her hands, slid his hands down her body to rest on her hips. Naruto bent his head, kissed her, tasting green tea, her lips- chapped from the cold air of hospital waiting rooms- against his. He loved the taste, loved the feeling he got when he was with them, like nothing and no one mattered as long as they were together.

"Two of them had been ramping up the gossip. I didn't tell you guys because I thought I could handle it on my own." A lift of a shoulder, a gesture picked up from Sasuke. "Maybe I can't. Anyway, it seems like they found out about us, and the whole 'girl in ANBU' thing kind of got eclipsed by the whole 'living in a threesome with the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and the former Uchiha traitor' thing."

Sasuke 'mm'ed in response, the sound shivering through Sakura's body into Naruto's. Naruto groaned lowly as Sakura pressed closer, smiling. "Seems like someone's in a good mood," she teased, hooking her fingers in his waistband and brushing her knuckles over the blond curls.

"Why shouldn't I be? I've got both of you."

Sasuke snorted at the display of sentimentality, stepping back and away from Sakura. "Go take a shower," he said, shoving her in the direction of their small bathroom. "We'll clean up."

"You're the best." She stretched onto her tiptoes and kissed his cheek before turning away to go to the bathroom, shedding clothes as she went. Naruto watched her go forlornly, wishing she'd come back and take care of the rather pressing problem in his boxers.

"It's not true," Naruto said as the door clicked shut behind her, the sound of the shower seeping through the wood. He stomped over to Sakura's pack and started sorting through her clothes in preparation for laundry.

"But-" Sasuke started.

"It's _not!_ We love each other, and if you love each other then there's nothing slutty about it." Sasuke glanced over his shoulder from where he was scrubbing Sakura's kunai clean, smirking derisively.

"Idiot. You should know by now that most of the villagers' standards of morality are a bit more conservative than mine or yours."

"Well, we should go and kick those guys'-"

"No."

Naruto blinked. "Why not?" Sasuke finished removing the bloodstains and laying the kunai out to dry before turning, joining Naruto in rolling up the loose scrolls. A long several minutes passed, Naruto stewing in his own anger.

"Well, Sakura joined ANBU because she wanted to prove that she could handle herself, right?"

"Yeah…" he said doubtfully, throwing some super-hard medical scroll over his shoulder into an open spot on the living room bookcase. Sasuke rolled his eyes, sighing.

"So if we go in and beat up these guys for her, then she wouldn't be handling herself. And besides, you know how she gets if she thinks somebody's infringing on her territory. So we need to just stay out of it, let her handle it herself, and intervene only if she asks us for help. Idiot," he added helpfully.

"Hey! Although it does make sense. You're right, for once in your miserable life." He ducked Sasuke's halfhearted swing, grinning and popping up behind him, draping himself over Sasuke's back, pressing himself to Sasuke's back. Sasuke growled, subsiding as Naruto finished, "We should let her handle it."

"Exactly," Sakura said from where she stood in the doorway, towel wrapped around her, her hair dark with water. She smiled- not as huge as her usual ones, but better than she had been before- and crossed the room to them. "Starting without me?"

"Well, I wasn't planning to," Sasuke said, standing and shoving his elbow into Naruto's side. "But this lunkhead got too horny to wait. So if you want to hurl insults at him, feel free. I'll just watch and laugh."

"I'd rather not," she said softly. Naruto winced. 'Way to go, Sasuke.' Sakura shrugged the towel off, leaving her all white and curved in the gloom. "Can we just go to bed, instead?"

"Yeah," Naruto managed, his throat dry, like it was every time he saw Sakura naked and was awed by her again.

"Thanks," she said, crossing the room to the door to their bedroom, and they- as they had always done and always would- followed.


End file.
